World Of Make Believe
by Crimson Bandit
Summary: As a "normal" life starts returning to some, others lives are just getting more complicated. Set after Leon's mission, and what happens when he shows up in the lives of lost friends. Eventual ClaireLeon
1. Constant Ringing

**A/N. This is my first Resident Evil fic. I plan on it being more of a dramatic romantic story instead of an action one. This first chapter is one of those chapters where you really have no clue where the story will end up going, but hopefully over more time and more chapters it will get better.**

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**World of Make Believe- Chapter 1-**

_He said he'd call…he said he would…_

Claire laid back against her couch and couldn't help but stare at the phone out of the corner of her eyes. When was the last time she saw Leon? Psh she could barely remember. How many years had it been? However the last time she had talked to him was a few weeks ago…apparently he had just returned from Europe with President's daughter…

_'It had been a normal day. Claire had just finished her shift as a waitress at the local restaurant. It was raining and finding a Taxi in New York City had proven to be impossible for her, so she had no choice but to walk home. _

_"You look like a wet rat." Chris had mumbled when she had returned home. Her beloved brother would stop by her place on occasion to have dinner with her or just make sure she was fine economy wise. However she would always refuse to take any of his money, she worked hard for what she earned, and so did he. She didn't want to have him go out of his way for her._

_"Chris…shut up…" was all she had said back to him, but of course that had caused him to grab her and playfully toss her onto her own couch. The two engaged in a harmless sibling fight before Chris had finally "left" the fight saying he was hungry._

_She let the water from body soak into the couch as she heard Chris call out to her from the kitchen._

_"Claire! What do you live off of? Microwave pizzas? You have nothing that can be used for cooking!" He stood over her again a grin on his face._

_Of course there wasn't much in kitchen , Claire wasn't one to cook. She rolled onto her back to face her brother and glared, "I'm fine with it, I'm not gonna die of a heart attack anytime soon! And by the way microwave pizzas are perfectly fine!"_

_"Yeah, well Emeril would kick your ass! I'm gonna have to go to the grocery store." She saw him leave her sight and heard him start to gather his jacket and car keys, "So since I'm making the trip I get to choose what we have!"_

_"You suck…did you know that?" She called out._

_Before he walked out the door he called out to her still form, "Yah know, I've really asked Jill to keep that stuff private." That was Chris, always ending an argument with a joke or a comment that would really make your skin crawl._

_She heard him leave, she heard his footsteps echo down the apartment hallway, she swore she had even heard him start up his truck outside in the parking lot. All she heard afterwards was silence, it clung to the room and in her mind, she remembered praying for the silence to leave._

_The phone._

_Her prayers were answered minutes later by the phone that was on the table besides the couch she had been lounging on. The loud ringing had caused her body to serve with adrenaline, she nearly jumped from the soft cushions to reach for the receiver._

_"Huh hello?"_

_"…Claire?" Came an unsure voice from the other end._

_"Yes, this is she." _

_"Claire Redfield?"_

_She laughed slightly, "Yes, and this is the only Claire Redfield here sir." She couldn't really recognize the voice, she began to twirl the coiled phone cord between her delicate fingers._

_"Claire, it's Leon"_

_Surly she had had wrong. Leon? Leon Kennedy from Raccoon? That was the only Leon she'd ever met. The last time she had heard from him was a while after the whole Rockfort Island ordeal. She had gotten a chance to explain the hellish event, sadly Leon hadn't had the chance to explain everything that he had been doing. He had something going on with the US government…_

_"Claire?"_

_"I…I'm sorry…what did you say your name-"_

_"Claire…" a soothing laugh filtered from the phone into her ear, "It's **me** Leon. Do you remember me?"_

_Leon…was it really Leon? Or was this some cheap trick some asshole was playing just to get her heart broken? But then who really knew about her in New York? Not many people knew her and Leon wasn't someone she'd ever talked about._

_"Leon?" She breathed, "…shit."_

_He laughed, "Yeah…" She hadn't seen him laugh much in the time that she had spent with him long ago. Hearing it now made her wish she had heard it more often, "Yeah it's me. Wait…haven't you turned on the new lately?"_

_Of course she hadn't, after a day of frustrating work situations, her irritating boss and no transportation home, listening to reporters babble on for hours was not on her to-do list. "Umm no, no I haven't."_

_"Turn it on. Now."_

_Still holding the receiver close, she sat back down onto the couch and reached for the remote placed on the coffee table in front of her. She turned on the TV and turned to the local News station. After a few moments she realized what the main and only story that was being talked about, "What?"_

_"Just keep watching." The voice from the phone told her._

_She did, and the words of the reporter got stuck in her head. "The White house can sleep soundly now that beloved Ashley Graham has returned safely. Young Graham, who had been abducted, was returned by one of the Government's Agents. Little is known about the abduction and the name of the agent has not been released. We are now awaiting the words of a representative of the President, to help explain…"_

_"Claire?" Leon's voice broke her away from the TV, "Are you still there?"_

_"Yes, yes!" She babbled, nearly dropping the phone in her lap, "Yes Leon I'm here!"_

_"I guess there needs to be an explanation huh?" Claire could hear new voices in the background of their conversation, wherever Leon was, he wasn't alone._

_"You're damn right there needs to be an explanation. What the Hell is-"_

_"Claire." He interrupted, "Claire I need you to listen to me. I have to go now, I don't want to leave but it's impossible for me to stay on the phone now. I'll be calling you later on ok?"_

_Leaving now? Why did he have to? He just called, she had so many unanswered questions! "Leon I don't fully understand."_

_"And that's understandable!" The voices in the background were more vocal now, "But I promise that I will be contacting you again soon. I promise that! Have I ever broken a promise?"_

_In the past when they were still together, and the dangers of Umbrella still lingered wherever they went he would often say things such as 'Everything will be fine.' and 'You're strong, you can get through this.' Looking back on it he was right, she had been able to continue with her life. All the terror had seemed to leave. "I believe you."_

"I believe you." Was the last real thing she said. At the time she did believe him. He said he'd call so she waited by that phone every chance she got. The first thing she did when she got home from work was check her answering machine, sadly she'd be disappointed by only hearing from her landlord, or salesmen. Every time she rushed to the phone and heard someone other than Leon her hope slowly crumbled. She had always said to herself "Next time, the next time I pick up the phone I'll hear his voice." What was taking so long?

She had said those things to herself a lot, until after a few weeks her thoughts had been "Maybe he forgot, or maybe he changed his mind." It was only natural for her to think like that. It was as if she was back in high school and she was the somewhat popular girl who was glued to her couch every night, waiting and hoping for the call from that certain boy.

That thought didn't last long however. The past ran back up to the present, bringing back memories of the Leon she once new. He wasn't one to pass aside someone important in his life. Well…not that she thought that she was really important to him, but he wouldn't be **that** careless. Even if it took months, she believed that she would hear from him again.

Than there was Chris. He had come home later the night that Leon called with an armload of groceries and, like she had been, covered with the evening rain. She had made the decision to not tell Chris that Leon had called. She would rather wait for the next time she talked to him to inform Chris that he was back. What would telling Chris really do? Nothing good that's what. The way she remembered things, her dear brother was never to fond of Leon. Whether it was just their personalities clashing or his overprotective brotherly instincts telling him that Leon was too close to his sister, it was made obvious that Chris wasn't too upset that he had left to begin with.

So that evening had gone smoothly between the Redfield siblings. Chris had made a batch of ravioli, instead of having Claire attempt to be the "Redfield chef". The conversation between them had consisted on how Claire's boss was an asshole, how she should let Chris lend her money and how Chris and his girlfriend Jill Valentine were always there for her. Even though many topics came up, she never got the thought of Leon Kennedy out of her mind. Claire wondered if he was thinking about her too.

_An official Government Agent who had been declared a hero thinking about 'lil 'ol me? Sure, what are those odds. That man probably has the whole world in his hands, money, respect, he probably even has a bunch of gorgeous women at him. Why could I give him that he doesn't already have?_

She had to set those thoughts aside, she couldn't just let them eat away her mind. She had enough frustration, she didn't need any more. Sighing, she lifted her tired body from the couch and reached for the remote and turned on the TV. The o-so-familiar news story filtered into her apartment.

"Today in the White house Miss Graham-" The screen went black before the woman could even finish the sentence. The TV's remote was soon thrown at the screen where the woman's head had once been seen. It hit the glass with a loud "tink" and was followed by the loud ringing of the phone.

The familiar ringing nearly made Claire fall from the couch. Sure, she knew by now that it was probably not "him" but that didn't mean that her nerves were going to calm down.

"Hello?" She said quickly.

"Hi Claire, It's Jill!" Ah Jill Valentine. How could Claire not be happy to talk to Jill? Whenever Chris wasn't around Jill was always his backup. A few months ago Jill had moved in with Chris to take their relationship to the next level. Of course Claire was happy for them, but she wondered if the love birds would spend the majority of their time with each other and let her be the occasional third wheel. Even though she was always the third wheel wherever they went Claire didn't feel distance growing between her brother or his girlfriend.

"Hey Jill What's up?"

"Well, you know tomorrow I have the day off, but Chris has a full day shift. Since I don't want to spend the whole day doing nothing I was wondering if you wanted to do something."

"Jill" Claire sighed while sinking back into the soft confinements of her couch. "I planned to sleep in sooooo late tomorrow, yet you want to drag me outta my lovely apartment! How can you even think of doing that to me?" She said sarcastically.

A soft laugh came from the other end, "Ah you Redfields. Sloth is definitely your family Sin. Come on Claire! It doesn't have to be for hours, we can go out for a quick lunch, maybe a 'lil bit of shopping. Come on, I need to fill you in on things."

Go hang out with Jill or Sleep? Go hangout with Jill…or sleep? …Sleep, Jill. Jill, Sleep. "Fine, uhmm yeah I'm sure we can do something along those lines. How about I call you tomorrow to tell you when a time is good for me. Is that alright with you?"

"Fine with me, I-" There was soft rustling from the other end and than a "thud", "Sorry Claire, I'm just watching the Ashley Graham thing on the News. Have you seen any of it recently? The whole thing is weird."

"Uh yeah, just one of those stories that'll be on forever. Well, I'll see you tomorrow, I want to catch up on some Zs." Claire started to twirl the phone cord between her fingers.

"You do that Claire, you do that. You seem to need a rest anyways. Good night!"

"'Night Jill."

A soft "click" filled Claire's ears and was soon accompanied by silence. She softly hung up the receiver and allowed her head to rest in the palms of her hands. Sleep, that was one of her favorite things in life. Even though Jill was correct when implying that she was lazy, she didn't give a damn. Sleep was a way to get away from the stress, sometimes she didn't even dream, there were no thoughts of Leon's call or of her job or any terrible horror that could happen tomorrow, or the day after that, or next week. It was just a time for her to seep away from life, with the pleasant fact of not being dead.

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**A/N ...Well?**


	2. Shadow Games

**A/N. Ain't it sad when it takes so long for someone to update? Even when they have the chapter written out? But thank you soooooo much to those that reviewed! I'm trying to improve my writing and ya'll help!**

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**World Of Make Believe- Chapie 2-**

_A breath…than nothing. No air came into her lungs, no life filtered though her body. Was she dead? Could she really be dead? After everything? Her body felt so lifeless, so cold…yet she could feel, almost taste, her pulse beating in her throat. Her heart was speeding away yet she could not move nor breath._

_Darkness…it was all she saw. Even though Claire's eyes shined in beauty everything around her was black. _

_Warmth. A sudden rush of heat spread over her flesh. It washed over her skin, allowing the ice she was encased within to melt away. It flowed into her heart, allowing heat to be pumped through her veins… Her senses returned, a strong bitter sent filled the air. Her fingers slowly touched the warmth that freed her, it slipped from her grasp, she felt a rippling substance covering her skin. Claire brought her wet hand close to her face…_

_…Blood…_

_She was covered in blood. Waves of it washed over her body. She wanted to move, she tried to run away but her feet failed her. She wanted to scream, the blood's temperature was dropping, the substance was turning cooler as each second passed. She opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out, not even a breath. Her body was sinking into the cold crimson liquid, one last chance, she tried one last time to scream. It was too late, the blood covered her face, and she was lost._

…Life…

As the world of dreams left Claire's mind her eyes shot open. She actually thought to see nothing but red in her vision. She half expected to see her bedroom's white walls to be stained with the blood she had seen in her dream, but no, she was right where she had been hours ago. Funny how much a dream can influence you.

She turned to the alarm clock on the nightstand. The glowing 2:46 AM was the only source of light in the room, aside from the moonlight that flowed from the window above her headboard. The rest of her room was bare, a small desk & and dresser stood near the door but other than that the room was empty. She never did get around to give her room personality, Chris had always told her to use money for personal things after she paid for the essentials. She was no Martha Stuart, so living in a white square box didn't really bother her.

_'Quarter of Three? Damnit.'_

Sighing, she plowed her face back into her pillow as if it were a way to allow her to fall asleep faster. Than she laid there, her mind and arms open with an invitation for sleep to take over again. What seemed like hours went by, Claire would switch between fumbling with her blanket and replacing her pillow to a more comfortable position. She looked back at her clock and groaned.

_'2-fuckin'-fifty five.'_

When she was about to give in and just spend the rest of the early morning staring at her ceiling, an eerie 'creaking' sound was heard outside of the room. Of course she thought nothing of it, as a child she had always made a big deal of bumps during the night. In the end she had always been faced with humiliation of just hearing the wind. Over time she eventually learned that most homes and buildings make sounds that can only be heard when everything else is silent.

_Creeaaaak! _Another creak followed the first one. Again, Claire was going to let it slide but the second sound was accompanied with a soft 'Click'. She recognized that 'click', it sounded like a door closing. It would be impossible for her to hear any of the doors of her neighbors…it had to be a door in _her_ apartment.

_'What the hell?'_

By this point she had sat up in her bed, bed sheets half peeled from her body, her ears were at full attention now. Her eyes were glued her bedroom door in front of her. She listened for anything, any voices, as each second passed she felt herself slip back into her frightened childhood self.

_Crash!_ Metal, glass, something of that sort could be heard breaking in her living room.

_'Shit!'_

Claire's body scrambled from her disheveled bed. She no longer focused on any more noise from the room over, all she cared about was getting to her dresser. She grabbed open the middle drawer, she could feel her pulse quicken in her throat.

_'Gun, gun, gun, gun!'_

It took a few seconds of searching through clothing, but she eventually came upon a small handgun. Even after the incidents with Umbrella Claire still insisted to have a loaded gun somewhere in her household. Sure the handgun wasn't a rocket launcher, but as long as the person in her house was human, she didn't think she'd have a problem.

Silence…Claire moved to the closed door and pressed her ear to it. Her body trembled as she heard what was on the other side. There were moments of muffled steps, of fabric brushing against whoever wore it. Claire could almost picture a shadowy figure moving towards her bedroom door, opening the door and taking her into the dark. Then she heard nothing…no steps…nothing at all. Only the sound of her quickened breathing filled the room.

'_Choices…go out there…see what it is. Or stay in hear and wait for it to come in here…or leave her alone. Oh yeah right, what if it's a rapist? If a rapist were to break into a house to find a victim would they really search every room, but say "Ah fuck it." when they reach the bedroom? No!'_

She didn't know when it happened, but her slender finger reached down to the door handle. After taking one more deep breath, she slowly turned the handle, saying a prayer in doing so. It had been so long since she pulled a gun trigger.

In one swift motion she swung the bedroom door open; gun pointed forward, mentally ready to pull the trigger… there was nothing there. No burglar trying to carry off with her TV, no creepy man trying to sneak into her room, no monster getting ready to pounce on her. There was nothing, just her small, lonely apartment.

She stepped away from the doorframe and started counting down from 10, she needed to calm herself down and she had once heard that counting helps calming the nerves.

_'10...9...'_

She took another step away from her room._'_

_'…8...7...6...'_

Even though the curtains were pulled away from apartment's windows the room was still hauntingly dark. Claire reached over hoping to feel for the familiar touch of the light switch.

_'…5...4...3...'_

Her fingers found the switch, she slid it up….and no light came into the room. Her heart began to pick up more speed as she repeatedly tried to turn the light on...

_'…2...1...'_

If the light was on maybe she would have seen the figure behind her, the figure who clung close to the wall in order to hide from detection, the figure clothed in the shadows. It wasn't until the figure took a step forward that Claire spun around. She had heard the step, and was prepared to point her gun at whatever came up.

A flash of movement happened before her, a piece of shadow reached out and knocked the gun out of her hand. She hadn't even seen the movement. She saw that the gun fell back into her bedroom. She gasped and tried to retreat back into the room but the figure reached out and grabbed her by both arms.

"Let me go!" She gasped out, but the figure did not let go, two strong hands gripped her flesh. Claire tried to kick the attacker away, but before she knew it the was pushed onto her couch. Her persistence was still alive and she continued her attempts at escaping. No good, it was useless, even though she refused to think that way, "I said let me go!" She screwed her eyes shut, she didn't want to see the evil that held her.

"Claire!" The figure said.

"No!"

"Shhhh, Claire it's me!" The man said. The deep voice spoke to her softly, she began to realize how softly his hands really gripped her, "It's me." He said again. This forced Claire to slowly open her eyes. Her vision was blurred from the trail of tears that poured from her eyes, but that didn't stop her from realizing who held her. He looked different than when she had last seen him. Older, taller, she could barely belive that it was the same man she had once known. His eyes. She remembered the bright shining blue eyes that Leon once had, she had always enjoyed looking into them. Now the blue eyes had a mixture of gray, she wondered what he hid behind those eyes. He had the same hairstyle; the length ending below his ears and parted away from the gray orbs.

"Le- Leon?" The young woman could barely speak, hell, her heart was still doing laps from the rush of fear that had just passed through her body moments ago.

"Yeah. It's me Claire, it's me. Calm down, please calm down, I'm sorry Claire, I'm-" He was interrupted with the sudden hug he received from her. She gripped his shoulder blades as tight as she could. Small rivulets of tears continued to pour from her face.

"I didn't know who you were!" She coughed out, "Leon, Leon I could have shot you! What if I shot you!"

She felt his arms hold her in return, all she wanted was to be held and be away from danger and he recognized that need, "Than that would've sucked. Don't worry about it."

A long moment of near-silence passed between the pair. The only sounds were of Claire letting the last of her tears out and of Leon trying to just calm her down. Every time she tried to close her eyes and stop the tears a new batch began to flow down her flesh.

_'He's back…he's back'_

Those words kept repeating through her mind as the moments passed.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

_'Nice going Kennedy, you nearly gave the girl a heart attack!'_

"Are you okay?" He had let go of the girl and sat next to her on the couch. He hadn't meant to break into her apartment and scare her, the whole situation was blown way out of proportion. He had been hoping that she would be sleeping and that they would have met more "peacefully" but it was too late for any of that.

She was wringing her hands, but she had stopped crying at least, "Yeah, I'm fine. God Leon I'm sorry I…I-"

"No, no, no…" He put up a palm to stop her, "Claire I should have known better than to sneak into your home at night. You were smart to assume I was someone trying to hurt you."

She nodded and stared at her lap; smoothing out the wrinkles across her loose fitting sleepwear. Her long, chestnut hair was completely dishevled and hiding her face, "It's okay Leon." Her head raised up, knotted locks of hair fell away, revealing her face to him, "Are you okay?"

He laughed a little to try to lighten the mood, "Yeah, yeah don't worry about me."

Another long silence passed between the pair, Leon couldn't think of anything that might make the situation easier, he wondered if Claire felt too uncomfortable with things.

"I'm sorry…" Claire cleared her throat, she lightened her voice as if the pair was having a normal chat, on a normal day, "What does bring you to my home at this time of night Leon Kennedy?" She paused again, "Or should I say Agent Kennedy?"

Leon formed a smile, "I'd prefer Leon. Hey, I said I'd meet up with you, and so I came here to do just that."

His own smile was met with her own, "Ah, correction. You said you'd call me."

"…I guess I did didn't I. Well again I'm sorry to cause you trouble."

"Don't say 'Sorry' anymore, I understand." Claire stood up and began to walk away from the couch and into her kitchen. Leon watched her go, and soon got up, hoping to join her. That was until something caught his eye.

_'…Shit.'_

On his way to the kitchen he noticed the pieces of glass that lay scattered across the apartment's carpet. He stopped at the site and called over to Claire who had begun to fill a glass of water, "Will you accept one more apology?" He kneeled over to the mess and carefully began picking up the remains of the lamp he had broken in his entry. In the darkness all of the shards looked black or at least dark, but as he inspected a piece closer it was clear that the glass was a variety of translucent colors.

Claire's voice could be heard behind him, "And what would it be for?" Leon could hear her soft footsteps as he continued to clean up the sharp glass. He found himself cleaning up as fast as he could, as if he was a child who feared getting in trouble, "Leon? What happened?"

He half turned to look at her, "It happened when I came in, sorry, I couldn't see well in the dark." Again he turned back to the mess and continued to clean.

"Oh, so _that's_ the crash I heard!" She exclaimed, "Thank god I thought it was something else." Before he knew it she had knelt beside him to help. Soon Leon had gathered every shard of glass, Claire finished the clean-up by taking the pieces of metal that had encased the light bulb.

"So you've already got into my apartment," She started to say as she directed him to the waste basket beneath her sink, "scared the shit outta me, and broken my lamp. I see you know how to act like a roommate."

Leon followed Claire's actions of disposing the trash, "I hope I having been implying anything…" He leaned back against the kitchen counter, "I have no problem leaving if you have a problem-"

"No!" Leon was shocked at her sudden answer, he noticed that she seemed a bit embarrassed after speaking so quickly. He didn't realize that she was relieved to still have the darkness to hide her reddened cheeks, "…Leon it's perfectly fine if you stay here. The couch folds out into a bed, you can get my room." She walked back into the living room and over to the couch.

"Hey, no, no you can keep your room. I'll take the couch!" He met her at the couch and started to assist her in folding out one of their sleeping quarters.

Of course the 'ol Redfield stubbornness still ran through her veins, "No way, what kind of host would I be if I kicked you to the couch?" They had succeeded in unfolding the mattress, now they were checking to make sure everything was stable.

"A smart one." He laughed while leaning over the soft cushions, "I really don't think you want me alone in your room with all of your things." He winked at her and smiled. Claire rolled her eyes and turned away, It was a feeble attempt to hide the smile that curved up her lips. She had failed.

_'You just got here, now's not the time to flirting, she probably doesn't even appreciate it!'_

"I see." Said Claire, still hiding a smile. She strolled over to the nearby closet and took out several blankets and pillows. "Well, fine then. Get some sleep now, but when morning comes 'round I want to hear everything that you've been doing." She tossed the pile onto the bed and put her hands on her hips, "Are you sure this is okay?"

"This will be fine. Go back to sleep Claire."

"Right," She said almost uncertain as she , "Sweet dreams Leon. And…I'm glad that you're here." He watched her hurriedly make her way back into her room and couldn't help but smile.

_'Sweet dreams. I wish.'_

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**A/N. Uhg, I feel like I rushed that chapter. Well……..yeah that's chapter…..2.…--Crickets Chirping--…..hey it's 11:30 PM and I just feel like typing periods!…..**


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